Alternate Realities: Tales of the Dolls
by Ehren Hatten
Summary: My name is Erik. I was once a genius musician and now I live inside a house in Texas as a doll. What's that? You don't "get it"? Read the tales and then perhaps you'll understand. Ch 3 up
1. Prologue

_A/N: :D my mp3 player works again! YAY! It really was the Y2K bug only 9 years too late. . Seriously, folks, you should look into these things, but then how can you REALLY anticipate that sort of glitch?_

_I've got the Forbidden Kingdom soundtrack. XD I love the music and the movie. I especially love Jet Li, Jackie Chan and the kid who played the white kid….. oh god and then the white haired witch is my absolute favorite, if anything for the fact that she's just all around fucking awesome with a whip, that hair and her clothes. _

_Anyway, so this is because I don't feel like drawing mini erik, but Amanda gave me an idea with her little written fanfiction to my fanfiction and so I'll write some too. :D After all, I make alternate realities of other things, why not my own work? XD Because I love making things fit. And for those who don't know anything about Mini Erik, it is my comic about my phantom of the opera doll coming to life and then all the dolls I make after he wakes up begin to come to life. It's also based a lot on my life, which has many rather bizarre incidences happening in it that force one to conclude my mother is fucking nuts. So, since I've been drawing the comic one way, why not do some sort of written work that is completely unrelated except in concept to the comic. Why? It's because I have trouble writing AND drawing a comic and a novelization. I can do one or the other, but not typically both at the same time._

**Alternate Realities:**

_Tales of the Dolls_

**Prologue**

My name is Erik. I was once a great genius that produced music the like of which you have never seen. I was once known as the Phantom of the Paris Opera House; a man shunned for being disfigured and scarred on half of my face, the bottom half having been some how sparred from much. I had been born with no nose, my eyes were sunken into my skull and the skin around my cheeks and forehead was so scarred that it stretched across my skin and made me appear to have no actual face but a skull instead. A mask saved me from a little of this horror, but none would love me because of it.

However, when I was being chased through the Paris underground cellars, I realized that I had suddenly found myself pulled into a doll body. This doll body was small, of course, with my typical white mask over the top half of my face. The one whose voice had called me had been a young woman, slightly older than my Christine, with shoulder length dark blonde hair and a very large bust. Having spent a grand portion of my time watching the Corps d'Ballet when I was in my normal body, during my latter years of living as the Phantom, I had actually forgotten a little that women did indeed come in all shapes and sizes.

As I've grown accustomed to living in this doll body I have become able to leave it in practically any fashion I wish. I can't get rid of my mask, though I wish I could, but I can appear wearing the finest clothing available to me should I wish. I could even rival that ridiculous viscount in my attire! I have also gained room mates as it were. My mistress makes dolls as a hobby and when she finishes one they tend to come to life not long afterward. I am the only one that has not been made by her hands.

Around this messy young woman's room there is a gold mine of books to read, albeit they aren't exactly the greatest works of all time. However, she does keep a few things around that amuse me greatly. I only wish I could make music again like I used to. I can't fault my mistress for trying her hardest to make us happy, because she does indeed try very hard to keep us entertained and give us the opportunities of being able to wander around outside without any problems. Her grandfather can see us, as can her friends, but her mother and grandmother can't. Her mother, however, professes to see spirits like us even when it's blatantly untrue.

To you, I hope, this will be somewhat enjoyable. It certainly has my approval, though I find this contraption my mistress types on rather bizarre and outlandish. Perhaps our tales will come to an end and perhaps they will simply continue. In any case, for now, we continue.


	2. Chapter One

_A/N: and so it begins. Yeah, I tend to write an author's note at the top to help me get stuff out of my head before I dive into the meat of it all. :D That and this way I can communicate to my readers. Of course, if this were an actual book you wouldn't have any of these things at the tops of the chapters, though that might be amusing for some people. After all, not many people had the bizarre tendency to sound almost exactly like the David Tennant!Doctor when they write or talk, which I do bizarrely enough. I wasn't even the one who noticed this quirk. My friend Amanda is the one and now it's stuck on me, not that I actually mind. XD Guess it's a good thing I role play as him in our game._

_So yes, of course, I don't own anything except my sometimes really crappy life and sometimes just plain fucking awesome life. And a few characters here and there, but you won't get them right off the bat. :D _

**Chapter One**

Erik was once human, though he rarely would call himself that. However, the doll that resembled him visually was alive with his spirit and was currently sitting on the well used bed that sat on the floor and served as both couch and bed for the young woman who he called his "mistress". In reality, he wasn't all too certain how she had managed to place him inside this doll body, but it didn't really matter to him one whit since there was little chance of him leaving it totally and if he had he likely would have ended up going right back to those tunnels with an angry mob of villagers with torches and pitchforks racing after him.

He smirked at the thought of a Frankenstein Monster induced mob of villagers coming after him and chuckled to himself over it as he sat back against the wall that the bed sat against and read a book off his mistress's shelf. When he had first come to life he had noticed that not only was the girl who "owned" him now a rather messy packrat, but had a small library on one side of her room. The very first book he had pulled off was _The Phantom of Manhattan_ and he rather enjoyed it for what it was. He especially liked the prospect of the viscount having no wedding tackle to enjoy the fruits of marriage with. He also liked the prospect of having a son with Christine, one that did not share his disfiguration.

For the moment, however, he was reading another of his mistress's novels, a book called _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_. It was well used with a paperback cover that had a torn bottom corner to it. He found the book rather intriguing to tell the truth and he appreciated the woman who wrote it. Something like this book would not have been published in his time and thought far too fanciful and ridiculous to be published. However, that seemed to be the blessing of this new time period he found himself in: a modern era where women could do and say as they please without the need for a husband, father or brother to direct them and everyone seemed to be accepted for who they were so long as they were willing to work for that respect.

Erik heard the door slam and listened as his mistress walked up the stairs to her messy room and dropped her purse onto the bed nearby him. His mistress was a tall woman, taller than most he had seen before, being nearly six feet in height. And she was built! Her shoulders and hips were rather broad and she had a large chest to compliment these features. She was also a big, heavy girl, which probably helped enlarge her chest a little bit. She had big blue-gray eyes and a somewhat round, somewhat squared face with relatively high cheekbones. She had long dark blonde hair that she pulled back in a twist or a ponytail typically and wore a pair of glasses perched on the end of her nose all the time. In some respects he could see her working as a librarian.

"Hi, Erik," said his mistress, Ehren was her name. "Just got back from taking a bit of a walk about around the mall and going to my violin teacher's house. Oh, Austin traffic is absolute murder at this time of day!"

The way Ehren tended to speak somewhat amused Erik at times, though he wished he could hear one French speaker at least for a few minutes. Even an English speaker would have been welcome or a Persian speaker. It wasn't anything against his mistress's accent; he just did not wholly appreciate the somewhat southern American accent she had. Thankfully, she did not have a very heavy accent.

Ehren sat down on the bed in an Indian position before fiddling with her radio and pulled her pillow up against the wall to lean against. Erik simply watched her as she played between fluffing the pillow and fiddling with the radio controls on her "ancient" "boom box". To him it was just a big black thing with sound magnifiers and strange buttons on the front of it and on top of it. She finally turned it on and leaned back against her pillow as a familiar voice rang over the speakers. "Good ol' Rush Limbaugh," she muttered and pulled out an mp3 player and her brief case. Then, she pulled out her sewing bag and pulled out her materials.

Another doll. Erik eyed the doll body with suspicion. Two other dolls had been made so far and one of them was rather irritating to talk to. As he thought of it, the very doll he thought of walked onto the bed with his shimmery red coat on his shoulder. He was about six inches tall while Erik was a full twelve inches tall in his doll body and much taller in his spirit form. Edward Elric was the doll's name and he was a young man who clearly liked to be a royal smart ass. He had long blonde hair that was pulled into a tight braid at the back of his head and in his doll body it was held together with a black satin bow. His clothes were all black except for his boots and coat, which were a deep shade of red like blood. On the back of the coat, however, was an embroidered cross with a snake wrapped around it.

'She's come home then?' asked Edward inside his head. That was yet another thing Erik had had to learn to do. In their doll bodies they could not communicate vocally like any other human could, but they could speak inside each other's heads while moving their mouths as though they were speaking normally to each other. 'Oi, what's that thing she's making? Is it going to be a girl?'

'Brother, be nicer, please,' said Edward's brother Alphonse. He was slightly broader across his shoulders than Edward and had slightly darker hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. He wore similar clothes to Edward, except his coat was black satin with oriental designs embroidered into it.

Edward rolled his eyes at Alphonse and sat down, tossing his coat off to one side as he did so. 'So? Is it going to be a girl?' asked Edward once more. 'I'd like a girl around here. It would be more fun if we had one.'

'Yeah,' said Alphonse, 'Maybe we can ask her to make Winry, Ed.'

Edward visibly shuddered. 'Hell no! I'd hate to think of what she would do to me if she came here!'

Alphonse held a rather calm expression as he sort of glared at his brother. 'Only because you hardly ever wrote to her and now neither one of us can.'

They went silent and looked on to Ehren as she stuffed the doll body, which looked very female and very curvy, and sewed up the sides of the limbs and body. Erik went back to reading as Edward eyed the doll. Inside he wished that perhaps Winry would get made and appear there for him and Alphonse. He really did miss her, though he refused to outwardly admit it. Right then, when he had come to this strange world where his alchemy did not work and had no prospect of returning to Armestris, he had a feeling in his chest that sank deeper and deeper whenever he saw Winry in the pages of the books Ehren kept. Was this what it was like to love a girl? He really didn't know and, now that he had nothing much to do except read or watch T.V. or listen to the radio, he couldn't avoid the feeling of loneliness inside his chest.

'I miss Granny Pinako's cooking,' said Alphonse after a moment of silence.

'So do I,' said Edward softly, 'I also want some of that pie Winry said she was going to make us using Mrs. Hughes' recipe.'

'Do you always think of food?' asked Alphonse, grinning slightly at his brother.

Edward yawned and simply laid back to ignore Alphonse. However, this didn't last long as Edward was suddenly picked up by Ehren and put up against the female doll body. It had a face on it now, though the eyes were empty and not colored in yet. "Hmmm," said Ehren as she eyed the pair of them up against one another. "She's a might shorter 'n you like this, but I suppose that'll have to do. I'm not making her taller since that'll mean I'd have to start all over again. Like hell I'd want to do that all from scratch again. It was hard enough the first time!"

Edward simply stared at the doll face in front of him and ignored Ehren for the time being while she sort of manhandled him. When at last his small amount of patience left him, he struggled like a cat and wriggled free from her hand to land on his fee. Alphonse grinned at Edward mewed at Edward like a cat. 'Are you calling me a cat?!' shouted Edward.

Alphonse laughed and ran as fast as his legs could carry him and slid down the pile of paper next to Ehren's bed while Edward chased after him. 'I'll show you a real cat! HAH!'

Erik simply shook his head and went back to his reading, ignoring the pair of boys as they played. He looked to the doll body once more and noticed a bit of a similarity in body to his mistress. He wondered if perhaps the doll was someone like his mistress before he decided to continue reading the book before him. After all, they would find out in time what this new doll would come to be when their mistress finished sewing her up.

* * *

"Isn't this picture funny?"

Ehren pointed to an image on her computer screen to her mother. Her mother, a very heavy set woman with mannish shoulders and facial features, walked into the computer room where Ehren was seated. Erik watched as the woman walked into the room and surveyed the screen. He also noticed that the woman had not dressed herself in anything more than a T-shirt with brown stains on it and a gray pair of short pants. Her hair was cut in a very boyish bowl cut and was dark brown in color, though he could see some gray starting to appear in it.

"Did you draw this?" asked Ehren's mother.

"Well, no, it's a girl named Makani on Deviantart," said Ehren quickly, watching her mother with those big blue eyes of hers.

"Oh," said her mother and moved away from the computer chair where Ehren sat, "Shame."

Erike snapped his head around to look to Ehren and her mother, watching to see what Ehren would do. Ehren blinked and quickly attempted to speak. "W-well, that's not how I draw. It's not my style."

"I know," said her mother, "Shame." And then, she walked out of the room and down the narrow hallway to her own room.

Ehren sat for a moment and stared at the computer screen before getting up onto her feet and walking down the hall. Erik hopped off his perch quickly and ran along behind her to listen in on what would happen. "It's not my style! I prefer doing what I normally do," said Ehren.

"You shouldn't stick to one style," said her mother, "You should diversify and do other drawings besides anime or whatever. Draw more realistic."

Ehren rolled her eyes and eyed her mother in irritation. "It's not like I don't periodically draw other ways, I just prefer drawing in anime-ish style because it's easier and quicker to do."

"Then, why don't you do those other styles?"

"I said I do do them, but," Ehren stopped and grunted, trying not to get caught up in an argument over it all. "Never mind," said Ehren and then turned away.

"What do you mean 'nevermind'?" asked her mother, in a somewhat snappish tone.

"I said nevermind, okay? Just, nevermind, I lost my train of thought."

"All right." Then, her mother walked back into the room that served as her bedroom. Erik found it somewhat telling that the woman had taken the largest room in the upstairs of the house for herself and left Ehren to pick from the two smaller rooms which were both the same size practically.

Ehren clicked out of the windows on the screen of her monitor and then walked back to her own room to cool down. It really wasn't worth it to get so worked up by what her mother had said. So, she pulled out her mp3 player, a small black machine that resembled her mother's cell phone in a way, and began sewing the doll clothes quietly for the new doll. The doll already had long white hair that was pulled back into a braid and had pointed ears sticking out from the sides of her head. The dress Ehren was making for the doll was made of dark red corduroy, it had poufy sleeves on it, and a poufy skirt that ended at the doll's knees and bloomed in a sort of bell shape. Erik seemed to recall Ehren calling the style Lolita. Really, it just looked a bit like a modified version of what women wore before he ended up in his doll body.

Edward, meanwhile, sat on the end of the mattress and eyed the doll that was getting closer to being finished. It was just then that the big black and white cat of Ehren's, Sylvester, hopped onto the bed and chirped at Ehren to pay attention to him. Ehren giggled and petted Sylvester while all three dolls retreated to the farthest corner of the room as they could find.

'That monster's in here,' said Edward, shaking slightly as he stared in outright fear of the beast.

'He… he really isn't so bad, Ed. Really!' said Alphonse, though he didn't sound too convincing and he was the one that actually liked cats the most.

Edward and Erik eyed Alphonse in disgust before hunkering down together to warily watch the monster of their nightmares. 'Just look at him… being all cute and fuzzy when he's really a monster that'll rip you to pieces!' said Edward.

'You have no idea, Edward,' said Erik, 'I once had to have my arm sewn back to my body because of that beast!'

"Would you three stop cowering already?" snapped Ehren in exasperation. "For the love of God, he's not going to kill you three. That's virtually **impossible**! I would think that since you can't actually **bleed**."

'See this, kitty? You ripped it from my body and I won't have you doing it again! Or slobbering all over my person!' shouted Erik as he shook his fist toward Sylvester. Sylvester simply curled up against Ehren's leg and ignored him.

'As if he can understand you, Mr. Erik,' said Alphonse, giving Erik a disapproving glance.

"I said he's not going to do anything to you three! Now stop cowering like little retards and get back over here!" In what seemed to be a single move, Ehren leaned forward quickly and scooped up Erik, Edward and Alphonse quickly and placed them right next to Sylvester, who simply just looked up at her as she did this with his big gold eyes. For all the cat's size, he was as thin as a rail and very long in both his body and tail. His ears stood up from his head and could be compared to a bat's ears in size comparison to his head.

Erik, Edward and Alphonse eyed the lean, mean, killing machine with trepidation before the cat laid his head down and finally seemed to be trying to rest. When he didn't move again, Erik, Edward and Alphonse left their spot to find something else to do while the monster slept. After a while, Erik began reading _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_ where he left off as Edward and Alphonse left their bodies to go sit outside as spirits.

Edward stared up at the sky as he lay on his back in the semi-dry grass of the back yard. It was getting closer to summer in Central Texas and the air was growing hotter day by day. However, neither of the two young men could feel the heat, nor feel the grass beneath them, really. They could sort of feel it, but it wasn't prominent or important to them. It was something that had been a bit of shock to the both of them before, but they grew accustomed to it slowly.

"Maybe we should ask Ehren to make Winry," said Alphonse as he gazed up into the sky. He was lying opposite to Edward in the grass and looked every bit a sixteen year old boy with his growing shoulders and chest, his short dark blonde hair and his gentle, strong face. Edward, however, seemed to have retained his automail arm and leg in his spirit form, though he could feel with them. He hardly knew why, but that seemed to just be how things went for him he supposed. While Alphonse seemed to have gained their father's breadth and height, Edward had been given a slightly smaller body like their mother, though he was as well built as his brother. Both, however, shared their father's gold eyes.

"No," said Edward after a moment, "I don't think she'd like any of this."

"I don't mind it," said Alphonse, smiling faintly. "After all, I can do pretty much anything I want here."

"Except get a girlfriend," said Edward, smirking deviously.

"I'll get one easier than you, that's for sure," said Alphonse quickly. "I'm the nice one. You're the loud one."

"Hey!"

Alphonse laughed and soon Edward was grinning in spite of himself. It was good to hear Alphonse laughing. Edward grunted as he shifted on the grass. Was it just him or was the grass suddenly not so nice to lie on anymore. It was becoming more prickly as he continued to lie there. He sat up sharply and glared down at the grass only to notice that the grass moved as though he really had been laying on it. He blinked, his eyes opening wide as realization dawned on him. Then, he grabbed his brother's arm and yanked him upright to look at Edward's discovery. "Look, Al," said Edward.

Alphonse blinked and stared at the grass where he had been laying as well. "We… were affecting the grass?"

"That means we're not just spirits," said Edward, "Spirits can't affect the world around them like they were real."

"But we're not totally human anymore, are we? I mean, look at us, we're still transparent and no one but a few can see us."

Edward thought about it, his mind moving like a well oiled machine. He plucked a blade of grass and held it up to his eyes, deep in thought. "We're not totally human, yeah," said Edward after a while, "But whatever we are, we're using our own energy to affect things without thinking. I can feel it… draining a very tiny bit as I hold this grass."

Alphonse frowned and nodded. "I see." Then, he looked to the glass back door of the two story house and nodded. "I wonder if Mr. Erik realized this as well."

"Probably suspects it, but I doubt he cares. He's an ass, anyway."

"Just like you."

"Hey!!"


	3. Chapter Two

_A/N: lalalala so there. Listening to Temple of Spice by Craig Pruess. Not bad stuff. ^^_

**Chapter Two**

Edward, Erik and Alphonse all stared at the female doll before them as she leaned against the wall where the bed met it. She was slightly, very slightly, smaller than Edward and Alphonse with a very curvy figure and a large chest that her blood red corduroy dress seemed to accentuate. The black lace accents, black lace petticoat and black, lacy knee socks all complimented the two toned ensemble; in turn they complimented her strange complexion. Their mistress had created a doll that was paler than any of the other dolls and her hair was white and shiny, held back in a pair of long pigtails with black ribbon bows.

'She's…,' said Edward, staring at the new doll.

'Pretty…,' finished Erik, the same expression on his face as Edward's.

Both Edward and Erik seemed stunned by what they saw before them. Alphonse, however, simply smiled and moved forward to get a better look at the new doll. Her seams had not disappeared yet and the hair was still the embroidery floss and woven into the doll's head rather than being fully attached and more hair like as Edward, Alphonse and Erik's hair was.

'She's not woken up yet,' said Alphonse, 'Brother said that when I woke up my seams disappeared and my skin became less cloth like and more realistic. And my hair became attached as my face became more face like rather than formed by clever sewing like this.' He held up one of the doll's arms and showed off the fingers which had been formed by sewing thread down the hand to make three distinct fingers and one thumb.

Erik remembered, right then, when he had woken up. He had woken up to Ehren singing a song and found her in the bathroom a couple doors down the hall from her room. She had been brushing her hair and putting it up, without her glasses on, of course. So, when she turned to look at him he noticed she could not actually see him clearly. She had mistaken him for a cat, even! At that point he had run away as fast as possible and ran right into the big, black and white cat Sylvester. That fateful meeting was the first time Erik began to outright loathe cats. Sylvester seemed to think of him as a toy to shred and Erik had his arm ripped off by the damned animal.

He also remembered when Edward had woken up and it was as though his doll body was becoming more human to accommodate the spirit within. The seams disappeared, visibly, from Edward's body and face, his hair became more realistic, his face formed more from the sewn mold it had been in before, his hands became distinctly more hand like and his fingers could move independently; it was all as though a sort of magic was turning the doll into a human, but with doll attributes. He also remembered how Edward had attacked him when he woke up. Alphonse, when he had woken up, had been far less disagreeable.

Ehren eyed her creation with a small amount of pride as she poked and tugged a bit on the doll's clothes and hair. When at last she seemed satisfied, she smiled at the others and played with a lock of her hair around her fingers as she spoke, "What do ya'll think?"

Edward immediately brought up two thumbs up toward Ehren and grinned. Erik snorted at Edward's antics and nodded toward Ehren his approval. Alphonse simply continued to smile at her in his pleasant, gentle way. When she saw their approval her face lit up with a broad smile and Erik was pleased that they'd made her happy with their approval. "Good," she said gleefully and stood up, "I'm going to leave for a little while. Take care of her, boys!"

Erik waved at Ehren as she picked up her purse and left quickly out her bedroom door. They heard her mill around for a little while, picking things up or eating something quickly, before walking out the front door and locking it tightly. Edward looked back to the doll and poked at her face, curious about her suddenly. 'She didn't give us a name or anything,' said Edward.

'She probably forgot that,' said Alphonse.

'It matters not,' said Erik as he crossed his arms in front of his chest, 'After all, if she wakes up she'll no doubt tell us her name.' Of course, Erik was banking on the doll waking up and tackling Edward with a few nice blows to that smug little face of his. The thought entertained Erik a great deal.

Edward snorted and looked to Alphonse. 'The old geezer seems to be thinking something's going to happen to me. That's why he isn't telling me to move away.'

'Betting on it, actually, since you brought it up,' said Erik, calmly.

'Whatever,' said Edward and stood up again.

Alphonse sighed and stood as well. 'Brother… Mr. Erik… please don't fight.' Alphonse knew the two didn't like each other, but he was uncertain as to why. That is, unless he thought about the fact that both were rather arrogant, both were geniuses in their own right and one was quiet while the other was loud. It was the perfect mix to cause an explosion at some point.

'He's an egotistical little circus midget with a very loud mouth,' said Erik, as though he could see into Alphonse's thoughts.

'As if you're any better,' snapped Edward, 'You're an arrogant, masked freak who constantly complains!'

'Is there a problem with my mask, shrimp?' Erik leaned down and growled at Edward as he spoke.

'Yeah, I do. Got a problem with my loud mouth? If I had my alchemy I'd show you what was loud!' said Edward.

'Yes, by your esthetic preferences,' said Erik.

Just then both stopped arguing and looked to the new doll. Alphonse looked around to see her pressed hard up against the wall and glaring at the three of them, her blue-gray eyes wild. Alphonse moved closer and held out his hand to the girl and smiled pleasantly toward her. 'I'm Alphonse Elric. Pleased to meet you.'

The female doll looked to the hand and then to Alphonse and the others like a caged animal. She moved swiftly away from Alphonse, searching about her for something, though she looked as though she couldn't find it. She was breathing hard and if she had a heart inside her doll body Alphonse was certain he would probably hear the heart fluttering like a bird. 'You don't have to be afraid, miss,' he said, 'We're all the same here. I'm Alphonse and that's my brother Edward and that's Mr. Erik. What's your name?'

The girl seemed to calm down a little and relax slightly as Alphonse spoke to her, though she eyed them warily. She opened her mouth to say something and, of course, nothing came out. Edward snorted and crossed his arms in front of his chest. 'You speak with your thoughts, stupid,' said Edward.

'HEY!,' shouted the girl quickly, 'Don't call me stupid! I'm trying, damn it! Oh, look, there I go.' She blinked and touched her mouth and face. Then, with a severe look of annoyance, she glared once more at Edward.

'Not my fault you couldn't figure out that trick,' said Edward, glaring back.

'No, you're just extremely rude,' said Erik. He slapped Edward on the back of his head and shoved him closer to the girl. 'Go apologize.'

'I don't have to listen to you!' shouted Edward.

'Brother…' Alphonse sighed and looked to the girl. He smiled weakly and offered his hand again. 'Alphonse Elric. That's my brother Edward and that's Mr. Erik. He's been here the longest out of all of us.'

The girl nodded and smiled brightly at Alphonse before she took his hand and shook it. 'I'm Astra Knight.' She looked around after a moment and stared at the furnishings in the room and the general state of mess the floor was in. 'Reminds me of my room back home.'

'Really?' asked Alphonse.

'Yeah, though mine's a bit bigger and on that wall over there is a desk with my computer hooked up to it,' said Astra as she pointed toward the window. Erik began to notice that as the girl spoke he could hear the same voice as their mistress' speaking.

'Where are you from, _demoiselle_?' asked Erik as he moved closer to Astra. Astra blinked up at him and her cheeks grew pink as he spoke her.

'Austin, Texas,' she said, 'I've been living in Scotland, though, for the school year since three years ago. That's where my school is.'

'School?' asked Erik.

'Yeah, not supposed to talk about it, but I don't think I'm in any place that would actually care,' said Astra.

'True,' said Erik, 'We're all dolls here.'

Astra rubbed her arm nervously as she looked around. 'Yeah, thought something like that might be going on.' Astra then walked away from them to the big, black, boom box sitting on the carpeted floor next to what looked to be a milking stool that served as a night stand for the bed. 'This is like the boom box I have, all covered in stickers and dust,' she said, chuckling, 'It's kind of funny to see it here.'

'What kind of school?' asked Erik.

'Magic school for wizards and witches. It's called Hogwarts,' said Astra quickly as she hopped up onto the stereo and began to fiddle with the controls. When she flipped a switch and turned the volume control the voice of a man began to speak from the speakers. Astra looked less than pleased. 'No, I think I turn you off, Mr. Ward,' said Astra as she quickly switched the stereo off.

'Hogwarts?!' Erik immediately darted past Edward and Alphonse and stood near Astra, coughing into his hand as he leaned over and held out his hand. 'Shall I help you off, _demoiselle_?'

Astra once more flushed and took his hand, hopping down off of the stereo and onto the bed in front of him. 'Thank you,' she said.

'You say you are from Hogwarts, yes? I've not seen you in any of the story so far. Are you ahead a year or two of Harry Potter, then?'

Astra blinked at the sudden bombardment of questions from Erik and found herself momentarily stunned by it. She laughed and shook her head. 'No, I'm in the same year as him. I was born a year ahead of him, though and I started school late because of my birthday.'

Erik frowned and scratched his chin as he regarded Astra. 'Then, what house are you in?'

'Same as Harry's, of course,' said Astra, raising an eyebrow, 'I'm in Gryffindor. Why do you ask?'

'Because I've never heard of you,' said Erik quickly. 'Your name is not mentioned in the story.'

'Story? You mean Harry's? Ah, well, I'm not famous or anything. I'm just your average Texan girl, really.' She smiled sheepishly and fidgeted a bit as Erik moved away from her, looking comically despondent suddenly. She would've laughed if he didn't truly look as though what she just told him had completely dashed his hopes. 'If it helps, I know him a bit. I mean, I sometimes hang out with him and stick up for him, but he's not, like, real close or anything.'

Edward burst out laughing. Alphonse gave him a rather annoyed glance before smiling back at Astra. 'Mr. Erik likes the books called Harry Potter. He's only on the second one, though. There are a few more here, I believe.'

Astra choked. 'Sorry?! You say there are books?' She laughed very loudly and had to support herself on the pillow near her to keep from falling down. 'Dude! If Harry knew there were books about his life that people read every day he would freak! That guy's so down-to-Earth it's scary. The Egoless Wonder, as I've started to call him.' Then, she sobered and coughed into her hand as she sat down on the bed in a rather unladylike fashion.

'What's wrong?' asked Alphonse.

'If there were books about him he wouldn't know about it. I mean, there are books, history books, which have him in them, but nothing about them. But, right now, he's off on his own with his friends Hermione and Ron,' said Astra softly.

'What do you mean?' asked Erik.

'Eh, long story. I'm sure if you're reading books about him that you'll find out eventually. I wouldn't want to spoil it for you.' Erik, at this, looked slightly annoyed as Astra attempted to give him an apologetic smile. 'Sorry,' she said when it didn't seem to take.

'It's all right, _demoiselle_,' said Erik.

'I take it you're a fan of his story, then?' asked Astra, smiling faintly.

'It's all he reads right now,' said Edward. 'I don't see what's so interesting. He's just some goofy kid with a magic wand. Big deal. I've got a better story.'

Astra tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. 'Do you? I don't recognize you… wait.'

'Yes?' Edward grinned toward Astra, waiting for the inevitable response of praise as being the Fullmetal Alchemist.

'I think I've seen you, at least a little bit anyway. On the internet,' said Astra, 'Fullmetal Magician or something.'

'Alchemist!' Astra and Alphonse laughed at the snappish response Edward gave as he glared at them both. 'There's no such thing as magic. Only science and that's what Alchemy is,' he said.

'You don't have to bite her head off, you know, brother,' said Alphonse.

'Don't give me that. I'm a witch!' said Astra. 'Are you saying that I don't exist then?'

Edward grunted and looked away. Alphonse blew impatiently out of his mouth and looked to Astra. Astra simply shrugged and leaned against the pillow behind her. She leaned her head back and stared at the pillowcase in surprise. 'Whoa,' she muttered. On the pillowcase was a large cartoon image of Edward without a shirt on and his red coat draped over his human shoulder and showing off his mechanical arm. Astra flushed faintly as she stared up at it and unconsciously leaned a bit more into the pillow.

'Oh yes, the big pillow that boosts the dwarf's ego,' muttered Erik in irritation.

'Oh come on, I look good in that image! There are better in the books, though,' said Edward, grinning. He coughed as he noticed Astra was staring and blushed faintly himself. 'Oi, you can stop staring, Miss Knight.'

Astra shot upright, her face like a tomato as she moved away from the pillow. 'Ah, yeah, nice picture,' she said in a shaky tone. Edward simply laughed at her quick response. And soon, they were left to themselves. Edward and Alphonse showed Astra around while Erik went back to reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, waiting for Ehren to come back home.


	4. Chapter Three

_A/N: I got a black and red eyeshadow duo pack and I found out really quickly that it stays on really, really well and it goes on very dark. o.o;; So to remedy the problem, I scrubbed off what I had before and then did a sort of geisha look I suppose._

_More crimes are being committed against anti-twilighters by the twilight fangirls. A book bag thrown as well as scissors and the fangirl cursing out a fellow anti when all he had said was "I haven't read it, no." She was dragged away by the teacher in the classroom. _

**Chapter Three**

Astra seemed to fit in well with the boys. She enjoyed talking with Alphonse and chatting with Edward, though he sort of didn't talk that much to her. She enjoyed being around Erik and he enjoyed her company as well. She spoke relatively well for an American and liked to talk about music, art, and the afterlife and God in general. While she wasn't a total genius, she was well schooled and sounded like their mistress when she spoke. He found her cheerful attitude refreshing and her white hair and pale skin quite lovely. However, the most important thing above all else was what attracted him to her like a fly to honey: she was the only female doll amongst them.

So, when Edward and Astra sat together and chatted with one another, Erik was not far behind and eavesdropping. When Astra and Alphonse sat outside and soaked up the sun and the bird calls in the air, Erik could be found sneaking around by the house and hiding. Stalking was perfectly within his nature, after all, and he made full use of it at every opportunity.

"Ever get the weird feeling you're being followed around?" asked Astra as she sat with Edward on the banister of the second floor of the relatively large house their mistress lived in. She was in doll form and wearing that blood red corduroy Lolita dress, of course, as she didn't actually have anything else readily available to wear. She kicked her heels as she hunched over slightly and leaned on her hands.

Edward was beside her and he had his coat off, both his doll arms perfectly normal. He leaned back on his hands and looked up at the sunlight hitting the ceiling and thought. "Yeah, a bit. Probably the cats or that masked guy," said Edward.

Astra sniggered and looked down at the three cats as they wandered around in the living room that the second floor looked over. A grayish-blue Siamese looking cat wandered around sniffing at everything. She looked relatively old, but still fit; her blue eyes were still as bright as if she were younger. There was a mostly white calico crouched on the couch, three reddish brown spots were on her mouth and made her look as though she had a goatee. She also had a perfectly symmetrical pattern on her head that was inverted in its color scheme on the other side of her head like a harlequin. Sylvester, meanwhile, sat off the side near the stairs and looked mysterious.

Astra smiled as she gazed down at the cats. "I miss my pet kitty, Skywise," she said softly, "Although, last year I found out he was really an animagus."

"A what?"

"A wizard that can turn himself into an animal," said Astra quickly.

"Ah."

Edward looked down at the cats and grunted faintly. "Al tried to smuggle a stray cat in his armor once. It's funny now, but at the time it was so crazy. I kept telling him we couldn't be attached to anything, since we needed to keep moving to find a way to make a Philosopher's Stone, so we could get our bodies back to normal and all." He smiled ruefully as he gazed down at the cats and sighed. "But, that's all in the past."

"The past is what makes you," said Astra. "If you forget the past, then you'll simply just repeat the mistakes you made."

"Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, yeah I know." Edward grunted once more and eyed Astra from the corner of his eyes, feeling just a little bit put out by her intelligence. In a way, he wanted to impress her a little, but she seemed forever capable of matching him at least in a few areas. He knew of one way he could impress her and he was unable to do his alchemy in this world or, at the very least, as a doll he was incapable. "Do you always sound like that?" he asked.

Astra blinked in confusion and then looked over to Edward in surprise. "Sorry? What do you mean?"

"I mean," said Edward, "Do you always sound like you're trying to be profound or sound like you're trying to be the older one here?"

Astra's cheeks flushed and she looked away, laughing. "Sorry, man, I didn't mean to be snooty or something. I tend to be very blunt and I know a lot of stuff, so…" She trailed off as she looked away from Edward, gazing at the glass back door and the concrete slab porch past it. "I was made fun of a lot growing up for being the smart kid, for being the fat kid, for being the tall kid, for being the weird kid, and for being the unpopular kid. My grandma didn't like that the school didn't teach me everything so she would teach me after school things like Algebra, science, history, and English."

"Heh, for me it was Alchemy and my brother and I would learn on our own," said Edward, smiling faintly. His smile faded, however, very quickly. "My dad left us when Al and I were really little. It was just Al, me and our mom."

"My dad died when I was about two or three. I don't remember a lot about him, but what I do remember of him are nice memories. My sister and I live with our grandma and our mom. Mom's a bit strange and ditzy, but she's very nice. Mama is a full elf and lived far up north with her tribe for a long time before finding my dad during auror training." Astra grinned and looked to Edward, her cheeks still quite pink as she looked at his profile. He was a very handsome boy; that was for certain. She especially liked his long blonde hair and golden eyes; if only he wasn't so short compared to her in their spirit forms.

Erik listened intently to their every word and made a decision for himself: he prove himself to be the more worthy of Astra's affections even if it killed him to do so! And so, he ran off as quickly as possible and spent the next several days writing and rewriting a poem or something he show to Astra his appreciation for her beauty and her intelligence, as well as the fact that she was the only woman among the lot of them. What could Erik say for himself? He was desperate for some female attention!

When at last he was done, he congratulated himself on the perfection that was his poem and set off to find where Astra was. She sat outside and hummed to herself while Edward and Alphonse weren't very far off from her. He stepped outside in the glare of the afternoon fall sun and eyed the grass of the backyard. It needed to be trimmed, but he didn't really care that much about it. It was grass. Grass grew. It grew and grew until it was cut down by either animal or human means.

He sat on the big black storage chest that sat against the side of the house in the backyard and watched Astra play with a couple blades of grass before letting them fly away on the wind. This was it! It was now or never and by God he was going to kick that blonde child away from Astra's side with this poem or he would have to actually find a way to strangle him to get rid of him.

"What can I say about her?" he said softly. When Astra didn't turn or even acknowledge him, he spoke a little louder.

"_What can I say about her? _

_What words can a shadow use to describe a sapphire-hue rose _

_whose pale blue glow shames even the pure light of the moon?" _

Astra turned slightly to look at Erik and watched him in mild surprise. He smiled faintly and continued in a lower voice, an almost hypnotic voice.

"_How could I write of those remarkable eyes _

_Whose hypnotic depths pull me in time and again? _

_Of those pools of moonlit water, _

_Beautiful in the light that spills from your face? _

_What can I say?_

_What good could the words _

_Of a broken, torn spectre be for a beauty like you?_

_What can I say?_

_Nothing._

_For I am silent in my admiration of you."_

Astra simply stared at him in wide eyed wonder, her pale cheeks flushed faintly in the sunlight. Even if she was somewhat transparent to everyone in this world, she looked as solid to him as if she were wholly human. Toward her feet he could see more of the transparency, but the rest of her was normal looking.

And then she spoke. "Who did you write that for? It's beautiful!"

Erik's left eye twitched slightly behind his mask. "Pardon?"

"I asked who you wrote that for. Is it in memory of Miss Christine or something?"

Erik was having a hard time believing that the young woman before him could be as dull as to believe that a poem recited to her could be for someone else. She clearly had the same level of intelligence as her creator, their mistress, but for all that intelligence she now seemed incredibly dull brained in comparison. "Er, no…" Erik couldn't manage to say much else as his mind was still reeling from the sudden turn of events.

"I liked it, whomever it was for," said Astra, smiling. "I'm glad you told it to me. It's really nice of you to trust me like that."

"It was for you, you silly woman!" he shouted. "What part of this did not register?!"

Astra blinked in surprise, moving backward slightly when he began shouting at her as though she were a little afraid of what he might do to her. "Sorry, um, I didn't really think something like that would be for me, sir," she said hastily.

"Why the hell not?!"

Astra smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Boys don't like me usually unless it's because to them I'm one of the guys."

Astounded, Erik stomped inside through the glass door and marched up the stairs of the house. Astra blinked and looked around to Edward and Alphonse. Alphonse shrugged and looked to his brother, who looked a little like he was about to murder something.

"I really didn't think it was for me!" said Astra, throwing her arms up. "Seriously, what's his problem? I said it was nice."

"Well, he has been working on it for the past few days, Astra," said Alphonse.

Astra flushed and looked away. "Oh," she said, "Oops. I guess I'll have to apologize to him. And thank him."

* * *

That night, Erik found Ehren sitting in the computer room and talking with her friends over the internet. Something seemed off about Astra. It was as though she really meant what she had said in regards to her never really being seen as a girl or a woman. His mistress sat in the little computer chair and was wearing her usual black tank top and strange leopard print pajama pants. As underdressed as she was to Erik he had grown accustomed to it as being more conservative for this new era than his own. That and she had shown him what a lot of girls wore to bed and at "sleep-overs"; a term describing a sort of all night party for girls and young women to enjoy sleeping in one big room together and play games while being comfortable in their pajamas.

"Demoiselle Ehren," he said softly, keeping his voice down in case Ehren's mother was around and awake as well, "Could you tell me about this new girl you made?"

"Astra? Eh, she's sort of my self-insert into the Harry Potter world," said Ehren quickly. She laughed a little nervously and looked away to the screen. "I wrote those stories around 2001 back after I graduated from high school. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was announced to come out the next year during summer, but it never came and then there was the publishing company saying it wouldn't be out until the next year. I began writing my own version of Harry Potter and the Oder of the Phoenix around that time and I put in myself and my friend Andrea into it as characters. It was a lot of fun and, while it's not the greatest thing in the world, Astra's evolved since then as I've played her in various role playing games and matured in my writing a little."

"So she is your own creation exclusively?" asked Erik.

"Yeah, she is," she said, "But she is also me."

"If I were to recite a poem to you, would you ask if it was meant for someone else?" asked Erik, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Well, yeah, of course. You're just reading me a poem, right?"

Erik rubbed his temple and sighed. "Do American women simply have no ego whatsoever? Shouldn't you be flattered to have a poem recited to you by a man?"

Ehren looked up at Erik and raised her eyebrows. "Ah, well, I think I'm beginning to get what's going on here. See, I'm used to people asking me how something sounds before they go off and give it to someone else. I'm the proofreader or English teacher, as it were. I'm the art teacher or the music teacher too, come to think of it."

"But you, you as yourself, do you become flattered by a man reciting poetry or singing to you or playing a piece specially made for the occasion? Aren't you flattered by that?" asked Erik, getting a little frustrated with his mistress.

"Well, if you say it's for me then yeah, but then I'd be almost completely useless after that because I really don't know how to deal with that sort of thing. Never really had it happen before." She smiled sheepishly and played with a lock of her hair as she attempted to keep whatever good humor there was left in Erik at this point. "I take it you tried to recite a poem you personally wrote to Astra, right?"

Erik flushed behind his masked and coughed into his hand. "Yes, well, I had entertained the notion she was an intelligent young woman who clearly should be flattered and flirted with, courted properly," he said.

Ehren covered her mouth with her hand and laughed; a more feminine move that he would not have expected from someone such as her. "Oi, she's intelligent. She as intelligent as I am. It's not a lack of intelligence that is the problem here. Neither one of us has ever been treated very much like a girl by the opposite sex. As a result, neither one of us really knows how to deal with that sort of thing. Plus it's easier to think that it's for someone else and you're just asking our opinion than to take it as just for us."

"But **why**? It is not as though you are ugly, nor is she!"

"Hard to explain, if what I said earlier doesn't make much sense," said Ehren, finally looking seriously at Erik.

"What do you mean?"

Ehren looked up at Erik and crossed her arms in front of her chest as she leaned against the back of the computer chair. The move made her large breasts more prominent in the low cut of the black tank top. "Seriously?" she asked.

"Yes, please do tell me what the underlying problem is," said Erik, adopting a similar position.

"I grew up being ridiculed on a daily basis because I'm smart, fat, tall and overdeveloped. I grew up with lots of friends until I gained weight and then most of them ditched me. Because I was suddenly unpopular. I lived in a trashy house and the kids I grew up with knew about this, so that got spread around as well. I used to be treated to boys saying 'Ehren Fatten' to the tune of the Twilight Zone theme in the hallways. I used to have a friend over at my house and we'd eat popcicles on our chest freezer and she'd play in my room until she turned on me. Boys treated me like I was dirt under their shoes. Girls were worse to me. I was alone for most of my childhood except for a few friends who remained by my side through this."

Erik blinked in surprise toward Ehren. And yet, as he gazed at her, he was not surprised at all that others would pick on her for being different from them. This blonde haired, blue eyed Amazon growing up taller than the boys and girls both and looked as though she could send them flying with a single punch to their face was likely very intimidating to many. Yet, from what she had told him he imagined that she must have fought back tooth and claw. She did not look like she was the sort to take all that lying down.

"I assume you got into trouble a lot," said Erik, smirking faintly.

"No."

Erik stopped and eyed her. "Oh? Sneak around and exact revenge and threaten the baddies with torture should they tell?"

"No. I just took it."

"Whatever for?"

Ehren looked a little uncomfortable as she looked away from him. She took a deep breath and thought hard on what to say to him before she spoke again. "When I was growing up I was told to never start fights, but I was told to end them. Don't start a fight, but by God don't let the bastard win. That isn't the sole reason, but one of several. Another reason was that I genuinely wanted people to like me, but I was so awkward about trying to be as cool as everyone else that it came off haphazardly and I would just be laughed at all the more. I'm a nerd, what can I say."

"You could have at least stood up for yourself," said Erik.

"Why should I have when I was eight years old and clearly the fat kid no one wanted to be friends with? Why should I have when I was eleven and my hair was messy and I had a bigger chest than all the other girls clearly did? I was the class freak. I was the class nerd. I was the fat kid no one wanted to associate with. I was the tall kid that looked older than everyone else did. Children will immediately pick on what is different from themselves and keep harping on it and harping on it until you break. I snapped back when they finally wore down my patience, but mostly I just let it eat me up inside.

"Even in highschool when I was more my own person and didn't give a shit about what everyone thought of me I still had boys rejecting me before I even tried to speak to them," said Ehren. "Guys here don't like fat women. Someone like me is lucky to even get one guy paying attention, much less several. That's what Astra grew up with and what she dealt with while going to wizard school. She has no real ego in regards to that because she was never really treated all that well by boys in the first place."

Erik eyed Ehren and stroked his arm as he thought carefully on what Ehren had told him. "Then, why would you put Astra through that hell if you had problems with it yourself?"

"Your past is part of who you are," said Ehren, looking up at him with those blue-gray eyes of hers, "You can't forget it no matter what because it is what makes you who you are in the now. So I was ridiculed as a kid and picked on constantly through middle school and ignored in high school, but that made me build a tougher skin that could take it and take it without a care. Petty insults toward myself are unimportant now. It also taught me the value of true friends, those who were willing stand by my side despite being targeted for it themselves. It also forced me to become very protective of those I care about because of those friends being targeted.

"You can't regret the past. You keep moving forward with the past bolstering you," said Ehren. She was standing and Erik, as the super tall freak that he was, found himself almost dwarfed by simply the intensity in her gaze. "It also makes Astra more realistic as a person, too," she said in a softer tone.

With that, Erik left to contemplate what Ehren told him. He would approach Astra later and speak with her in a more direct fashion if that was what was required of him. For the moment, he was still reeling a little inside from Ehren's story. He had not lied. She was a pretty girl and was indeed chubby, but she wasn't ugly by any means. Astra was a little thinner than Ehren, but the two were virtually the same person and now Erik knew why that was. In the end, he would have to work hard to get Astra to see that he was trying to gain her affection and not just her friendship.


End file.
